Shaikh Khalid Tawab (S.I) Sr. Vice President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has warmly welcomed Mian Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan on his move to increase country’s export by 25 percent to 30 percent with effect from forthcoming financial year (July 2017) with the view to support the balance of payment (import $40 billion and export $ 22 billion) and taking radical steps for this purpose including possibility of announcing an amnesty scheme for trade and industry.

The SVP of FPCCI informed “these views were expressed by the Prime Minister while addressing a large and distinguished gathering at FPCCI 40th Export Award Ceremony held at Pakistan-China Friendship Center, Islamabad on December 15, 2016; wherein, inter-alia the Prime Minister was also requested by the representatives of the business community for the introduction of another general amnesty scheme for all the trade and industrial sub-sectors of the economy and allowing that to invest without declaring source of income. While appreciating the government efforts for the documentation of economy, he pointed out that the share of undocumented economy stood at 75% and added that the amnesty scheme would help in establishment of industries and providing employment opportunities to a large number of unemployed youths which are about 60 percent of our population. He also proposed to take effective measures for reducing cost of doing business such as cut in gas prices and to ensure that all benefits of falling price of oil and gas is passed on the industrial sector particularly to the export oriented industries to restore the competitive edge of our products and make them competitive in the global market against the foreign goods. The SVP recalled that due to international recession, more than 38 countries including Italy and Turkey would also announce different types of amnesty schemes for the revival of their economies.

He urged the Prime Minister and Finance Minister for not signing of international trade pacts on the basis of political motivation instead of economic rationale. He informed that Pakistan has signed six Free Trade Agreements and Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) since 2006 to mutually benefit trading partners, however, Pakistan has yet not benefited from any of these agreements as evident from the fact that FTAs with China and Malaysia led it to an increase in trade deficit from $ 2.9 billion to $4.1 billion and $1.6 billion to $ 1.9 billion respectively. Similarly, he added that PTA with Indonesia led to an increase in trade deficit from $ 0.8 billion to $1.0 billion.

Shaikh Khalid Tawab further expressed his-re-assurance the appreciation made by Prime Minister for S. M. Muneer for his efforts making TDAP a corporate and corruption-free entity and it is expected that the exports of Pakistan will increase many fold in 2017 and 2018.